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Contributing Writer Storytelling & Travel Writing

Tom Bretherton

Tom Bretherton has spent the better part of two decades travelling, and the better part of that time paying attention. He has contributed to Light & Composition since 2014 with a writer's instinct for the particular — the name of a town, the timing of a conversation, the kind of detail that makes a story feel true. His Reflections are brief narratives that arrive at something universal by way of somewhere very specific.

621 Published Reflections

Reflections by Tom Bretherton

Showing 12 of 621 essays
The Alchemy of the Table Photo of the Day
March 13, 2020

The Alchemy of the Table

I remember a lunch in a small village in the Dordogne where the chef came out to wipe the table himself. He didn’t talk about the ingredients or the technique; he talked about the soil. He spoke of the rain that had fallen three weeks prior and how it had changed the temperament of the […]
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The Quiet Before the Noise Photo of the Day
March 1, 2020

The Quiet Before the Noise

I remember walking through the botanical gardens in Cologne just as the city began to stir. There was an old man near the rose beds, his hands tucked deep into his coat pockets, watching the frost retreat from the petals. He didn’t look like he was waiting for anything in particular, just standing there in […]
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The Weight of the Day Photo of the Day
February 26, 2020

The Weight of the Day

I remember sitting in a train station in Osaka, watching a man in a charcoal suit lean his forehead against the cold glass of the window. He held his briefcase on his lap like a shield, his knuckles white against the worn leather. He didn’t look at his phone or the passing crowds; he just […]
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The Sweetness of Patience Photo of the Day
February 16, 2020

The Sweetness of Patience

My grandmother used to say that the best things in life are those that require a little bit of waiting. She had a fig tree in the corner of her garden in Adelaide that seemed to do nothing for months, just gnarled branches and stubborn leaves. Then, in the heat of mid-summer, it would suddenly […]
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The Weight of a Trace Photo of the Day
February 15, 2020

The Weight of a Trace

I remember sitting in a dusty cafe in Javanroud, watching a man walk past a sun-bleached wall. He didn’t notice the shape he was casting, but I couldn’t look away. There is something unsettling about a shadow; it is the only part of us that follows without permission, a dark twin that mimics our every […]
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The Ghost of the Platform Photo of the Day
February 7, 2020

The Ghost of the Platform

I remember waiting for the 6:12 train in a station that smelled of wet concrete and ozone. A woman stood near the edge of the platform, her coat collar turned up against the draft. She wasn’t looking at her phone or checking the schedule; she was just watching the tunnel, waiting for the dark to […]
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The Mirror in the Eyes Photo of the Day
February 6, 2020

The Mirror in the Eyes

I remember sitting in a quiet corner of a local library, watching an elderly man read a newspaper. He wasn’t just scanning the headlines; he was tracing the words with a trembling finger, his brow furrowed in a way that felt deeply, achingly familiar. For a second, he looked up and caught my eye. There […]
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The Geometry of Grace Photo of the Day
January 29, 2020

The Geometry of Grace

I remember sitting on a low stone wall in a quiet corner of a park in Marseille, watching an elderly couple navigate the path. They moved with a strange, synchronized rhythm, their heads tilted at identical angles, their pace matching perfectly without a single word exchanged. It was a dance of long-term familiarity, a language […]
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The Weight of the Horizon Photo of the Day
January 25, 2020

The Weight of the Horizon

I remember sitting in a roadside diner in the South Island, watching a man map out his route on a paper atlas. He traced a line toward the mountains with a calloused thumb, his coffee going cold beside him. He told me he wasn’t looking for a destination, but for a scale—a way to feel […]
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The Weight of Stillness Photo of the Day
January 20, 2020

The Weight of Stillness

I once spent an entire Tuesday sitting on a stone wall in a village outside of Shiraz, watching a sparrow navigate the gaps in a garden fence. I had a book in my lap, but I never turned a page. There is a specific kind of patience required when you stop trying to influence the […]
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The Sweetness of Stolen Time Photo of the Day
January 7, 2020

The Sweetness of Stolen Time

My grandmother kept a chipped ceramic bowl in the pantry that was reserved for nothing but summer berries. She didn’t care for recipes or measurements; she simply waited until the fruit was heavy enough to pull the branches toward the earth. I remember sitting on her back porch in July, the air thick with the […]
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The Soil’s Quiet Geometry Photo of the Day
January 5, 2020

The Soil’s Quiet Geometry

I remember sitting in a small kitchen in Chiang Mai, watching an elderly woman scrub dirt from a handful of carrots she had pulled from the earth that morning. They weren’t the uniform, orange sticks I was used to finding in plastic bags back home. These were gnarled, deep purple, and pale yellow, still wearing […]
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